Chapter 69: Skinny Alpaca

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Chapter 69: Skinny Alpaca

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Looking at the attacker, it was a large, dark-skinned man from the Longarm Tribe with a bulky build, he had a beard and long nose hair that resembled a mustache. He also had an alpaca on his shoulder mounted like a bazooka.

I immediately recognized him as Shuzo, a member of the Neo Marines, part of the Zed Crew. These guys were quite a big deal with hundreds of battleships and a former Marine Admiral leading them.

"Ray, stay here and take care of the icebergs," after saying that I immediately dashed down and landed on the ship.

My body was already in hybrid form and I punched away another bazooka shot that was about to hit the ship.

Booom!

"Who are those?" Asked Isuka, her rapier already in hand and ready to fight.

"Neo Marines, a group of criminals led by radical Ex-Marines," that's all I told her, just in case so

she wouldn't get any ideas about joining them.

I hadn't created that sense of belonging with Isuka yet, so my trust in her wasn't strong enough to believe that she wouldn't leave and join a radical group. 

Especially since the Neo Marines would suit someone like her very well. That sense of justice, valor, and belief… all of that could be used by them to recruit her. So I had to nip that option straight in the bud. "Isuka now is the chance for you to fight someone who could gauge your strength."

"Uhhh… how do I even get there?" She seemed unsure, looking at the waves surrounding us and the icebergs falling from the sky. 

I smirked and picked her by the back of her shirt.

"W -Wait! What are you do-" her pleading was interrupted as I threw her towards Shuzo.

Fwosh!

Isuka's body flew through the air like an arrow, and she landed on the submarine perfectly. I had gotten better at throwing people than back then when I threw Zoro on Drum Island. Now I was confident in my people-throwing skills… though it wasn't something I bragged about as many men got injured during my trial and error learning process.

I see Isuka barely dodge a point-blank attack from the bazooka alpaca on Shuzo's shoulders. He then threw the animal/weapon away and it landed on its feet. 

He attacked Isuka relentlessly and she was barely able to dodge, a couple of Finger Pistols hit her, piercing her skin and drawing blood. It seemed like she wasn't quite at the level where she could handle someone like Shuzo. The man's experience and Rokushiki Techniques usurped him a victory. 

But suddenly Isuka's sword unpredictably moved like a snake and hit the man, even though he used Tekkai her attack pierced through and three gaping holes were left in his body.

As expected, Isuka was a talent worth grooming, and I hadn't even given her the Devil Fruit that would make her special. Also, she didn't know any Rokushiki techniques, so that also put her at another disadvantage in this fight. 

It became apparent that Shuzo outclassed her when he used his version of Finger Pistol and five of his fingers sank in her stomach.

That was my cue to move quickly as I used a combination of <Soru> and <Geppo>.

In an instant, I was in front of Isuka as she was about to be blown to smithers. The buff Longarm Tribe man had the bazooka alpaca aimed at her. 

"Die with her, Bear D. Max!" He had a malicious look on his face and shot. But before the bazooka shot could come out, I used Armament Haki in my hand and blocked the alpaca's mouth with my hand.

BOOOOOOM!!

The explosion blew the alpaca to smithereens, Shuzo as the one closest to the explosion had a huge chunk of his shoulder chopped off. I on the other hand only had a little shaking in my arm.

Instead, I was more worried about Isuka, and she was unconscious with slight bleeding from her head.

"You damn bastard!" Yelled out Shuzo, not giving up. He had lost access to one arm, but he used the other to shape it like a claw.

[Shigan: Five]

Each of his fingers was ready to pierce me, but as it hit my stomach, the man's eyes widened in shock.

"W -What?" He sputtered in confusion.

His attack hadn't done anything and I wasn't even using Tekkai, that was when he realized our difference in strength and tried to jump back. But I just pointed my fist towards him.

<Ryokugan>

Booom!!

A blast of air shot out of my fist and hit him in the chest, immediately he spit out a huge glob of blood. He had suffered major internal injuries. I would use stronger attacks, but I needed the man to live a little longer and report back to Ex-Admiral Zed.

Shuzo's eyes showed a trace of panic in them, by now he had undoubtedly noticed that fighting against me would only lead to his death. Any of his attacks would be unable to injure me and even his alpaca bazooka, the only weapon with the potential to injure me was killed off.

With that in mind, I put Isuka over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and jumped off the submarine as it started descending underwater.

The Neo Marine officer Shuzo frowned, he probably didn't wanna let me go like this. But did he have a choice? There was nothing he could do against it, so he too jumped underwater and chased after his submarine.

"Ugh," Isuka moaned in pain, and I could feel her tears of shame land on the sea below us. "Sorry…" she apologized, her humiliating loss having dampened her spirits.

Well, I should be the one apologizing after sending her to attack an enemy I knew she would lose against. This was all done so Isuka didn't have any chance of joining the Neo Marines because now she had attacked and injured one of the high-ranking officers. Of course, I won't apologize, but I didn't hold Isuka's loss against her either. "Don't worry, you will get stronger and I just have the perfect idea to help you grow."

Saying something like 'sorry' or 'you will get him next time' wouldn't be worth anything. No, Isuka wasn't someone who needed petty talk, no one needed to comfort the loser. The only thing a loser needed was the tools to beat the winner. Only then would they feel satisfied. Everyone had the potential to become greedy and lust after power, they just needed the right situation to trigger those responses.

Humans were creatures of habits, and we all had the potential to be amazing in our own ways. Isuka simply hadn't awakened that unnatural greed that all of us had, the part that wasn't satisfied with what we had no matter what.

In my previous world, I had been just another normal guy, with normal thoughts. Of course, I always compare myself to people better than me. It was said that everyone was equal when born, but that was a lie that everyone knew that. Some were born rich, others born handsome, and some were both. That was the truth of the world. No one was born equal and there would always be someone better than you. 

But why?... Why would I allow for someone better than me to exist? Was my existence so meaningless? No one would remember me after death, and in the end, I would become maggot shìt.

Why the hell would I allow that to be my end?!

In my first life, there was no chance of me ending any other way. Eventually, people died, that was the end of life. Some said that death even gave life meaning. But to me that was different, death only gave people despair. I didn't get up every day because I knew that I had limited time in this world, but because my ambition wouldn't wait for me.

Isuka was the same and had all those feelings inside of her, she just doesn't understand them yet.

Only by being true to ourselves can we get what we want.

As those thoughts roamed my mind, I landed back on my ship and the iceberg rain had ended.

Raynare landed next to me as she had cut many falling icebergs. She looked towards the underwater submarine. "Is Negan in position?"

I nodded, "Yep, he has entered the enemy submarine and is staying inside there spying on their movements."

*purupurupuru*

As I said that, my transponder snail rang out and after picking it up, I saw that it was Negan calling me. "Boss-Man," his voice came from the other side. "Risky Red is the place where Zed and the rest of the Neo Marines are going to meet up."

"Did I ever say that you were my favorite friend." Who would have thought that a man like Negan had enough tact for spying?

"You could mention it some more." Negan added smugly.

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A/N: Usually I would plan along the way where chapter 69 would develop into a lemon… but sadly this time I forgot and couldn't have Max do anything on the battlefield.

P.S: Also the side story below was written for fun.

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(Bonus Side-Story) (Canon)

-Joey POV-

Back in the day, I was known as Skinny Joey, that was my mark, it made me special. Now I am known as just… Joey, or the guy in charge of the cannons. 

Now I am the cannon guy, no one even remembers my name anymore. Even Negan looks at me and makes a sad face and mutters about Fat Joey. Were they even that close? He always made Fat Joey just do his chores, like go get lunch and clean his room.

Fat Joey was the special one, I was just born with his name and skinny. Welp, better go and get some fruit, the fighting outside and the giant icebergs make me feel hungry. At sea, one has to eat fruit and other things so they don't get scurvy.

As I went to the fruit section of the ship, there were a couple of trees around and an apple tree had a strange white hue to it also there were weird swirly signs on it. Huh… never seen an apple like that. Is it a Devil Fruit? Nah, no way I am that lucky.

So just like that, I picked up the cool-looking fruit and took a bite out of it. Immediately, the first thing I noticed was how bad it tasted. The taste was so bad that I felt like Fat Joey was calling me from the afterlife.

That was also when I started noticing that my body changed and morphed.

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Once dinner came around, I saw Vice-Admiral Max looking at me as he drank water and played poker with the rest of us. He was in his bear form, this technically wasn't cheating, but no one could read his face because… well, he looked like a bear holding a couple of cards. "All in," he said with a confident face and looked at me. "So when did you become an alpaca?"

I shrugged, having also used the Zoan transformation to my advantage during poker. "During lunch," then after that I put all the chips in too. "All in also,"

The other around the table groaned and folded. "You win," said Max, showing that he had bad cards all along. I looked at my cards… mine were worse… I thought my gamble would pay off. 

Damn it… also Max's smirk felt like he knew something all along. My gambling debt just increased again, I can't wait till payday comes.

….